Ekaterinburg, June 4, 2010 - Russia and USA both hope to put on a better show for the fans and improve the quality of the game in their second FIVB World League match when they meet in Ekaterinburg, Russia on Saturday at 12pm GMT.

4,500 people turned out to watch host side Russia sweep past the USA in three sets (25-15, 26-24, 25-14) in the tournament’s opening match on Friday.

Both coaches said that they were not satisfied with the quality of the game and wanted to see an improvement ahead of the second fixture.

“Of course I am happy with the result, but we need some tough games so that we can see what we have to work on,” Russian coach Daniele Bagnoli said. “Despite an easy win on Friday we were not satisfied with the team play in transition game, setting and reception of float serve .

USA coach Alan Knipe said it was the most disappointing game since he took control of the national team since the Beijing Olympic Games. “We failed to play to our usual standard” he said.

It was an untypical game for the U.S. Team who are known for their ability to never give up. The reason they didn’t play at their usual level could be explained by the absence of a number of important players such as setter Lloy Ball who retired from the national team last year and wing-spiker Clayton Stanley. Additionally Reid Priddy, an integral cog for the team, was also absent due to family reasons.

Russia was also missing some of its key players including Sergey Tetukhin, Alexey Verbov and Alexey Kuleshov. However a number of young athletes stepped up to replace the veterans, the most impressive of which was 21-year old Dmitriy Muserskiy who topped the scores with 12 points on his debut on Friday.